Photo Credit: Riot Games
Recently, Riot has released their newest champion, Zoe, an ancient cosmic messenger from Targon despite her youthful appearance. Zoe relies on her tricky mechanics to snipe and pull off unexpected attacks against her enemies.
Passive: More Sparkles!
Zoe’s passive is basically a built in sheen where after casting a spell, her next basic attack does bonus magic damage. Several of her other spells can also proc this ability too.
Q: Paddle Star
Zoe’s Q is her main source of damage and can be used as a poke tool or a long range snipe. When cast, Zoe fires a star that deals magic damage and applies her passive. She can recast Q to redirect its direction after she has sent it out initially. The farther the star travels, the more damage it does, so shoot it directly at an enemy for some poke or shoot it behind you and redirect it to hit them for even more damage.
W: Spell Thief
Perhaps the most powerful spell in Zoe’s kit is her W. When enemies use summoner spells or even active items such as Zhonya’s or Protobelt, they drop a spell shard that Zoe can pick up and use with Spell Thief. In addition, some minions also drop a spell shard after being killed by Zoe leading to some interesting interactions in lane. Minions might drop an Ignite or Barrier that would allow Zoe to take trades with the enemy and win her lane after grabbing an unexpected spell.
E: Sleepy Trouble Bubble
For her E, Zoe throws a magical ball that explodes against the first target it hits and makes them drowsy. After a short time, drowsy enemies will fall asleep and take extra damage from the next attack or spell. If the bubble doesn’t hit a target initially, it becomes a trap on the ground for a short period of time. In addition, whenever this ability makes an enemy fall asleep, it refunds the cooldown. Use this ability to put enemies to asleep and make them easy targets for your long range Q.
R: Portal Jump
Zoe’s R is pretty simple, teleport to a nearby location for a brief moment and back. During the teleport, Zoe can use all her abilities and attacks and see over walls, but cannot move. This ability is useful for quickly grabbing a spell shard dropped with Spell Thief or for a quick use of Q or W.